One thing about beer that the article didn't touch on is that it's a fragile product which has its quality harmed by the standard supply chain. It's both temperature and light sensitive.
This makes many smaller producers compared to few large producers more attractive than in a more easily transported good eg. phones. One big factory with all of the quality standards and efficiency gains that allows works great for the iPhone, not so much beer.
I don't know enough about weed to be able to say where it falls on the fragility of product spectrum, but it's a factor worth considering and I'd be interested to hear from people who do know enough.
To me this actually makes me respect beers like Budweiser even more. They've managed to take a fairly temperamental style of beer, mass produce it in breweries spread around the world, and wind up with a product that is damn near uniform everywhere I've ever had it. It's not my preferred style, but I don't think I've ever had a truly bad one.
This makes many smaller producers compared to few large producers more attractive than in a more easily transported good eg. phones. One big factory with all of the quality standards and efficiency gains that allows works great for the iPhone, not so much beer.
I don't know enough about weed to be able to say where it falls on the fragility of product spectrum, but it's a factor worth considering and I'd be interested to hear from people who do know enough.